The title of this blog "The Nuanced Perspective" is an attempt to show that on many things, there's a lot of gray area in my thinking and not as much black and white, conclusive, narrow reasoning as some people may have. You'll see many of those nuances in this space. But this is not one of those times. Some of you may remember the author of Top 50 Sports Announcers, David Halberstam (note: this is not the more famous author of the same name) from his days as radio play-by-play guy of the Miami Heat. Simply put, he was awful, contrary to the opinion of local radio talker Neil Rogers. This list solidifies his insanity. Putting Vin Scully, easily one of the top 3 or 4 sportscasters ever at #16, boarders on ignorance. Putting him behind the likes of Brent Musberger, Pat Summerall, Jim Nance, Joe Buck, and the God awful Frank Gifford leads me to wonder if he's deaf, too. Also, how do Harry Carey, Skip Carey, and Jack Buck get left off?
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Agreed, it was the kind of article which reminds you of the 24/7 need for content Yahoo and others are under. Having said that, I would have gladly taken a shot at it, which brings me to my point.
ReplyDeleteThis is kind of like writers voting on college football awards. Who really watches that many teams or games? In the case of anything but network broadcasters, the listening public was very limited [satellite radio could change that]. Scully was already a legend before he got to the networks, but unless your market picked up their games, how could the regular fan know?
So what I'm more interested from you is, who did you listen to growing up? Who made an impact. For me it was the Atlanta Braves broadcasts since they were picked up locally by WKAT and their ONE sponsor. Same ad literally every half-inning. Friendly Bob something.
Good luck with the blog
This looks like it might be fun. You are right. You have too much time on your hands.
ReplyDeleteYou forgot the great Howard Cosel. He probably called the color on the gladiators circuit. I wonder who did the play by play.
I bet if they had given Nero a child proof lighter, Rome would not have burned. Oh well.
Best of luck with this here blog thing. It should keep you out of trouble. Well, maybe.
Jorge,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the well wishes. Growing up in S. FL, my first impressions were of Rick Weaver and Sonny Hirsch. Later, I enjoyed Jon Miller (Orioles, then), Harry Kalas (Phillies), Ken Coleman (Red Sox), and Spencer Ross (Yankees) on WIOD. I remember the Braves on radio here in '82 or '83. Was that when they were on WKAT? Also, I used to listen to games on Armed Forces radio exposing me to the great Chick Hearn (Lakers). Finally, as far as exposure is concerned, satellite radio is great, and now the internet is as well.
Elder,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what you mean about Cosel. On the list, Halberstam has him at #1. I guess I'm fine with that, considering his influence. I just think Vin Scully shouldn't be that far behind all those lightweights I mentioned.
It's Nantz not Nance -
ReplyDelete---Apparently you didn't get it. Sounds to me like these guys were stacked up based exclsuively on network television contributions and impact. The other guys you mentioned were local announcers.
Thanks for contributing, and for the correction. You are right that one of Halberstam's criteria is national reach. All the guys I mentioned that I felt were snubbed, had that: (Scully-NBC, CBS radio and TV; H. Carey-WGN; S. Carey-TBS; Jack Buck-CBS radio and TV). But network TV exclusivity is not part of his equation, as witnessed by his inclusion of Chris Berman, Mike Tirico, and Ernie Johnson.
ReplyDelete